One Dish: Waltham eatery has deep Sicilian roots

Thursday

May 4, 2017 at 7:00 AMMay 5, 2017 at 11:15 AM

Ignacio Laguarda ilaguarda@wickedlocal.com @ilaguarda

Michael Colomba is a man brimming with ideas.

The Newton entrepreneur is not only building a new hotel on Moody Street along the Charles River, but he also plans on opening two restaurants in the building, to go along with his two current locations of eatery Brelundi in Waltham.

Oh, and he’s also a pilot and started his own construction company at the age of 21.

The native of Sicily is the heart and soul behind Waltham’s Brelundi restaurants, the first of which he opened two years ago.

The second, inside the renovated Watch Factory, is a 50-seat restaurant with outdoor patio that opened six months ago. Both locations serve Sicilian fare, inspired by the food Colomba ate as a child in his homeland.

Food has deep family roots

Colomba moved with his family to the United States in 1970, at the age of 11. At first his family lived in Somerville, but Colomba now lives in Newton.

The Italian-born Colomba grew up in Castellammare del Golfo, a seaside village in Sicily, and his family members made their own food, meaning almost everything Colomba ate growing up came from the garden or animals kept by the family.

"We didn’t have any Star Markets," he said, laughing. "We grew up making our own cheese, making our own breads … we grew up where everything came out of the backyard, whether it was vegetables or the meat."

So what did the family have to go to the store for?

"Soap," said Colomba, laughing.

His family instilled in him an appreciation for food at an early age.

"In my mind and my heart, I always had the idea that some day I wanted to do something with food," he said.

Deep research

The process to open Brelundi started with a trip to Sicily, a mission to study his own culture and investigate food offerings on the island.

Sicilian food is more Mediterranean in nature, opting for oils and herbs over buttery and creamy sauces, a "less is more" approach.

His travels eventually led him on a quest to find the perfect arancini, stuffed deep-fried rice balls, which originated in Sicily. He ended up talking to an arancini guru named Leonardo LoTurco in the hilltop town of Taormina.

Colomba was so fascinated by LoTurco’s expertise that he paid for him to fly to Waltham to show his staff how to make the rice balls so that they’d taste the same as the ones in Sicily.

According to Colomba, LoTurco tried 500 different rice mixes in order to find the perfect match, since the rice he used in Italy isn’t available in the states.

Besides finding the right mixture, LoTurco also taught Colomba and his staff how to properly make the arancinis, a delicate process that’s more science than art.

The ratio or rice to filling has to be just right. Overcook the rice, and it tastes too firm. Undercook it, and the rice is too chewy. And don’t forget to seal the arancini properly, or else the filling will pour out.

After 10 days in Waltham, LoTurco went home, but his recipe and teachings stayed in Waltham.

Now, Brelundi makes 48 different varieties of arancinis, a staple at the restaurant and café, and distributes them to other restaurants.

Besides perfecting the menu, Colomba needed to find a name for his burgeoning restaurant business.

The name Brelundi is an amalgam of the words "breakfast", "lunch" and "dinner." Colomba came up with the name by satisfying all three of his self-imposed prerequisites: the name had to start with an "a," "b," or "c," it had to sound Italian, and the URL had to be available.

Asking people to guess the meaning of the name is favorite game of Colomba’s, and it stumped quite a few restaurant goers.

"People get a kick out of it," he said.

Taught by grandmother

Sandro Calidonna is the head chef at the restaurant. His grandfather was the original owner of Al Capone’s pizza in the North End.

Calidonna shares Colomba’s passion for food and authenticity.

"The way (Colomba) thinks is he wants it to be the way he knows it from when he was little, and that’s the only way I know stuff, because my grandmother only taught me the way she knew how to cook," said Calidonna.

Other dishes at the restaurant include the grilled polpo, an octopus salad, that’s listed as an appetizer. At $15, it’s a generous portion of perfectly grilled octopus over a bed of greens with tomatoes and peppers.

The more substantial ravioli con pollo alla crema, listed at $18, is an impressive platter of spinach raviolis covered with grilled chicken, and a pesto sauce.

The restaurant and café also boast an impressive collection of Sicilian pastries, including one named Iris, which Colomba says can only be found locally at his eatery.

Iris is unique to the area where Colomba grew up, and is a deep-fried homemade brioche filled with ricotta, chocolate chips, and lemon zest, and topped with cinnamon.

For the pastries, Colomba went back to his playbook of importing talent, by paying for Sicilian pastry chef Nicola Scolaro to come to Waltham. He stayed for six months, and taught Colomba’s staff how to make a variety of pastries.

"The best compliment is when someone from Italy comes to me and says, this is better than what I have in Italy," said Colomba.